One of the classes I teach involves an online classroom tool called Echo. On this website I can post agendas and assignments. There is a place for journals as well as a discussion forum, and there is a place for shared resources and ideas. It is this shared space that is oftentimes used, to my dismay, for mindless banter. However, this past Wednesday, one student accessed another students account and posted "mr alger is a fuckin fagget" (sic). Normally I would merely delete inappropriate threads in our shared space, but I felt this posting warranted a response. I posted the following:
Actually, the word I believe you mean is "faggot," and yes, I am gay. You will find it hard to intimidate or shake someone that is fully comfortable with his own identity.
Meanwhile, anonymous poster, you are clearly afraid of both me and yourself. Perhaps you have a deep fear of an identity that lies within, in which case, I feel deeply sorry for you. Perhaps you have a legitimate concern but lack the maturity to express it--again, I feel sorry for you.
One day, perhaps you will have the strength and courage that I have, and perhaps on that day, you will be a man (or a woman), until that time, you are but a scared little boy (or girl) and I believe we all feel sorry for you.
Respectfully,
Mr. Alger
Ps- "Mr." should be capitalized and should be followed by a period. "Alger" should be capitalized, and f**king has a "g" on the end. Additionally, all sentences should end with a period. I'm less upset about what you wrote and more upset with the abysmal way in which you wrote it.
I hope my reply taught the poster a lesson--at the very least a lesson in spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I hope it also served as an inspiration to any of my students that face harassment over their own identities. It was met with a rather enthusiastic show of support from my students, and I even got a supportive e-mail from a parent.
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